📖 ABSTRACT/OVERVIEW
The development of AI systems in Nigeria is embedded in global data and technology power asymmetries that constitute a form of digital colonialism, limiting Nigerian agencies' capacity to develop AI that serves local interests. Developing an original theoretical model of this dynamic and its implications for digital sovereignty represents an important contribution to postcolonial data science theory. This study developed an original theoretical model of data colonialism and digital sovereignty in Nigerian AI development. A critical decolonial theory-building methodology was employed, drawing on systematic review of data colonialism and AI sovereignty literature (53 publications from 2018 to 2024), structured interviews with 45 Nigerian AI researchers, government technology officials, international platform representatives, and civil society data rights advocates, and expert validation with 20 scholars in postcolonial technology studies. Interview analysis documented concrete mechanisms of data colonialism in Nigerian AI: foreign platform ownership of Nigerian behavioural data, European AI governance frameworks imposing compliance burdens without consultation, AI model training on Western data that performs poorly for Nigerian use cases, and technical debt from reliance on foreign AI infrastructure. The original Data Colonialism and Digital Sovereignty Model for Nigeria proposes three sovereignty dimensions: data extraction sovereignty (control over Nigerian data leaving the country), algorithmic sovereignty (capacity to develop AI serving Nigerian value systems), and infrastructure sovereignty (domestic compute and cloud capacity). Five sovereignty restoration pathways are specified. Expert review confirmed the model's original contribution to postcolonial AI theory and Nigerian digital policy discourse.
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